The Unbelievable Health Benefits Of Sleep (And How To Get More Of It!)

Mar 21, 2017 01:30

Today, we’re going to talk about one of life's great mysteries; sleep. More specifically, we want to discuss the relation of sleep to your health. Take a look down below for all the information you need:

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sleep?

We’re always told to get more sleep every night, with people quoting that eight hours is the minimum you need. However, most people just tell you that sleep is good, without really explaining why we need a lot of it.

Bearing that in mind, here are the undeniable health benefits of sleep:

Better Memory

Studies have shown that if you get a good amount of sleep every night, your memory will improve. You retain information a lot better when you have a comfortable amount of sleep under your belt, compared to when you hardly sleep. So, if you have exams to study for, spending all night cramming is a lot worse than getting a long night of sleep!

De-Stress

Another benefit of sleep is that it can help you de-stress and feel more relaxed. When we sleep, our body and brain are more relaxed, and we don’t have a care in the world. Many people find that sleeping for a long time can help them wake up and be relieved of stress at the start of the day.

Muscle Recovery

If you’re into your health & fitness and like working out, then you know your muscles need time to recover after each workout. Sleep is one of the best ways your muscles can recover, as a lot happens in your body when you’re snoozing. Important nutrients and vitamins are working hard to repair your muscles while you’re in bed fast asleep. If you hardly get any sleep, you’re more likely to wake up sore when compared to someone that does the same recovery routine as you but sleeps for longer.

Improves Attention

Did you know that getting lots of sleep can help you be more attentive? It’s true, studies show that people who sleep less are more restless and don’t have good attention spans. This is largely down to the fact they’re tired and can’t concentrate properly. But, with lots of sleep, your attention span is improved, and you’re less restless.

More Energy

Perhaps the biggest health benefit of sleep is the increase in energy you receive. Think about sleeping as though you’re a smartphone that’s being plugged into a charging port. Your batteries are nice and recharged, and you can go about your day with enough energy to perform at a peak level for longer. But, let’s say you only charge your smartphone for half the time or don’t fully charge it. What happens? It won’t fully recharge the batteries, meaning the battery runs out quicker. It’s the same with humans, get less sleep, and you’ll feel tired and run out of energy earlier in the day. This can impact your life as a lot of people get tired around 4 pm every day due to their lack of sleep. There’s still so many hours left in the day where you won’t be performing at full capacity.

How Can You Get More Sleep Every Night?

When you see how incredible sleep is for you, it’s understandable that you’ll now want to get as much of it as possible. However, struggling to get to sleep is a problem for a lot of people. Most people won’t get a full seven or eight hours, and usually, make do with a disrupted five or six. Thankfully, there are many things you can do to help you get more sleep every night and reap all the benefits.

Start With Your Bed

It’s a lot easier to get to sleep and stay asleep if you have a comfy place to sleep. So, your first focus will be on your bed. Ensure you create a comfortable place to sleep, somewhere that encourages you to drift off into dreamland. To do this, you’ll first have to decide on a mattress that’s right for you. Go to a bed store and try out all the different mattresses until you find one that’s perfect for your body. Some people love soft mattresses, others like firm ones - it’s all about personal preference. Don’t be fooled into thinking you need a super soft mattress to have a comfy bed, that might not be your definition of comfort. Next, you should think about your pillows. Your head needs a nice place to rest, and this means getting pillows that feel nice and comfy. What you don’t want to do is pile up your pillows as this can cause neck pain which makes it harder to sleep properly. Finally, think about your comforters. As you can see on the Plumeria Bay website, there are loads of different comforters you can buy. Try and get something nice and thick and soft that feels like a cloud. It will make your bed really cozy, and you’ll fall asleep with ease.

Relax Before Bed

One mistake people make is they don’t relax properly before bed. So, they end up crawling into bed all stressed and worked up, which leads them to stay awake for hours. The solution is simple, set aside half an hour before bed for some relaxation. Read a book, do some yoga, meditate. Take some time out to just chill and get yourself ready to sleep. If you have more than half an hour spare, then that’s great, the longer you can relax before bed the better.

Stay Away From Screens

Screens are your worst enemy when getting ready for bed. It’s normal for most of us to be on our phone checking things before we finally go to sleep. Or, we lay in bed watching TV for a bit or play on our laptops. The problem is, when our eyes are exposed to the light coming from screens, it causes us to stay awake for longer. Therefore, if you truly want a good night’s sleep and want to hit the hay for as long as possible, you need to turn off your screens!

Set A Bedtime

Most people struggle with sleep as they don’t have a proper bedtime. Remember when you were a kid and your mom put you to bed at the same time every night? You hated it, but did you ever not get a full night of sleep? No, you slept like a baby every time as your body clock became adjusted to sleeping at the same time every night. Give yourself a bedtime, and you will have a time in your mind when you need to shut everything down and get to sleep. It will help set a sleeping pattern which your body will adjust to and mean you sleep longer.

What Are The Dangers Of Not Getting Enough Sleep?

So, you can see how to get more sleep, and you’ve seen the benefits of sleeping, but what happens if you don’t manage to sleep long enough every night? Get a lot of it, and it will help your body. But, have too little, and it starts to hinder you.

We’ve mentioned a few things that occur when you don’t get much sleep earlier in this piece. We spoke about being less attentive, being more stressed out, having a worse memory, and not having enough energy.

Mainly, the biggest danger of not getting enough sleep is that it makes you tired. When you’re tired, you run the risk of doing all sorts of things that create problems for you and other people.

Poor Work Performance

Tiredness means you will struggle to perform at your peak levels every day. This is an issue as it impacts the company you work for, and could result in you losing your job at some point. It’s the same for students too. Don’t sleep properly and you won’t study as well meaning your grades suffer, and you might fail.

Declining Social Life

It’s hard to have a good social life if you’re constantly tired and lacking energy. All you want to do is rest, meaning you often turn down invitations to go places. As a result, you become distant with your friends and spend most of your life in your house trying to do things that don’t require energy.

Increased Chance Of Accidents

The biggest danger of not getting enough sleep is that there’s an increased chance of accidents occurring. Tired drivers cause so many road accidents every year, with many being fatal. When you’re tired, your reactions slow down, and your sense of awareness fades too. This means you have a tendency to get into all kinds of accidents. This isn’t exclusively talking about car accidents, you can have little accidents at home or work too. You might spill your drink as you’re too tired and careless, or you could drop things too.

Hopefully, this piece has given you all the sleep information you could possibly need. You’ve seen how it benefits you, what issues can occur when you don’t sleep, and how you can get more sleep every night. Take this info onboard and start getting more sleep and feeling healthier.

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